Delivering letters to Santa at Macys – very important!

Eleanor helping with the painting watched by her OCD mother. Not painful at all…..

Hannah earning some pocket money.

Stocking up supplies.

The Watermaker – drilling a hole in the side of the boat with a little help from the girls.

Eleanor steadying the dinghy.

Stewart on the receiving end.

1 x shiny new watermaker.

Solar panels finally fitted at the stern.

Wiring in the solar panels.

Eleanor using her ship’s knife – she is extremely pleased with it.

Hannah trying out the floating dock.

The girls practising with their rods.

We are almost ready for the off.  Most importantly the letters have been delivered to Santa!  The watermaker was fitted about a week ago. Because we needed to get into blue water to save the watermaker from the dirt of the inland waterways we had to wait until yesterday when our friendly and excellent Spectre rep, JT,  was free to commission it and to be given our instructions on how to operate it.  On/Off, remember to flush it after ever use and change the filter monthly. How quickly can we balls that simple an instruction? Start the book someone!

The framework for the solar panels was finally fitted this week after an awful lot of faffing around by the metal company we went with. They have done a lovely job but did it really need to take a near month from flash to bang? No idea how they make a profit. Watching them fit it (three of them all gabbering away in Spanish – one doing all the work and the others giving helpful suggestions) was initially amusing. Once we’d had to help worker bee with a towel dry and antiseptic to clear the cuts he got from the oysters not once but twice having dropped vital parts overboard and had to dive for them, Stewart started to get a little frustrated. In the end it took 6 hrs to fit a two part frame and two solar panels on to the davits – but all done with a smile.  Stewart has been wiring those in to the batteries with a little help from the girls. Small hands (and bodies) help when trying to feed wire through the guts of the boat.

I have continued to stock up on provisions as the Caribbean islands tend to be more expensive than the US.  We are working on having three months worth of basic provisions and we will top up with fresh as and when we can.  I have spent the last week or so doing daily trips to the supermarket working my way down my shopping list by category.   I look as if I am planning for some sort of apocalypse, as I fill my trolley with dozens and dozens of canned veg or with pounds of rice and pasta.  I have had some strange looks but mostly people are genuinely interested in what we are doing.

We will hopefully be supplementing all we have stocked up with by eating a LOT of fish on our travels.  Stewart has bought two very nice fishing rods and the girls also have one each – no surprise that Hannah’s is pink! They have been practising casting off the boat which occasionally requires Stewart to untangle lines caught on chain, next door yacht, a wooden post (God knows how) but thankfully not each other yet. No fishy catches to report as yet.